Chapter 37: The Guild Master’s Motives

Guild Master’s point of view.

Although I’m fed up with the mountain of documents right in front of me, thinking that it’s part of my job, I endure it and go through one document after the other.

「There were requests for permission to use the training grounds this week, huh. The ones using it now are “Grim March” and “Invierno Fyne”, is it. Though five years ago, both of them were just some random rookies, they’ve grown up to be fine veteran adventurers, huh.」

Right, these two parties are currently the most famous adventurer parties in the town of Motsi. I can still remember when they came to this town, almost at the same time five years ago. Both of them started from E Rank.

The people of “Grim March” were, summing it up in one word, naïve. Blindly pursuing their ideals and overestimating their own strengths, they were heroic people that would move forward and never stop. Yet at the same time, many of their actions were pretty much suicidal. They couldn’t do it in public, but the veterans that time had large bets on when they would die.

In contrast with “Grim March”, the people of “Invierno Fyne” have given up on everything in the world. They have the same face as those who were praised as prodigies and geniuses, only to have ended up coming across the 『real deal』 at the Academy. In that Academy, there exist the 『genuine ones』 that no common geniuses nor prodigies can reach. It’s a summit that neither just talent nor efforts alone can achieve. And as these people came in contact with them, they who have never known failure end up with their heart torn and broken to pieces.

“Grim” who lost themselves in their own dreams and “Fyne” who was destroyed by their own dreams; well, naturally the two didn’t get along, so again and again, they keep on bumping heads with each other. Ignoring the small conflicts inside the Guild, even coincidentally meeting up with each other in the Dungeon gets the both of them starting up fights. In those days, they were a great cause of headaches.

And exactly at that time, multiple towns and villages, including Motsi, had an endemic of a vicious disease, ending up with me having lost any time to spend on them. Everything got too damn annoying, so I decided to just lock them up in the Training Area for five days and have them go at each other to their hearts content. Five days being the time I got the materials for the medicine, going to the neighboring villages and coming back home.

The disease was commonly known as the 『Children’s Disease』, which is mainly caught by children of about three to eight years old. It was a weird disease that only children suffered from, having three main symptoms: rashes all over the body, high fever and paralysis of the limbs. Naturally, if you leave the child as is, with their physical strength they’ll die from the atrocious disease in a blink of an eye.

However, that disease already had medicine developed especially to cure it. Since special materials are needed for it, it’s not something one can readily make. Still, I was an active A-Rank Adventurer before sitting down as a Guild Master, so collecting them was a piece of cake.

「Come to think of it, those two from the “Little Fairies” also joined in today’s Mock Battle, huh.」

“Little Fairies”. It’s a party I named without their permission, but it’s a name that really suits the two of them, don’t you think?

One of them is Urania. One of the children infected with the 『Children’s Disease』 five years ago, a Dog-ear kin child that I wasn’t able to save. There were approximately a thousand children infected with the 『Children’s Disease』, but thanks to the quick action, we were able to keep the casualty to an incredibly small amount of four.

Although this was all due to the special cure; however the cure had a lethal side effect to it. It was something that the Humans, Elves, Dwarves and such had no problem with. However, to a portion of Beastkin including the Dog-ear kin, it left a fatal after-effect.

Beastkin is the generic term for a variety of races. It includes the Dog-ear kin and Cat-ear kin, the Fang Wolf kin and Moon Bear kin, and various other races. Explaining it simply, the former are 『a race that can draw out the strength of a beast when needed』 and the latter are 『a race that hold strength equal to that of a beast at all times』. At a quick glance, the former are those guys that look like they grew out animal ears and tail and the latter are those guys that look like animals walking on two legs.

And ones that were affected by that lethal side effect were the former. They possess a certain skill called 【Beast Transformation】. It’s a skill that displays the ******* nature engraved in their instincts, their trump card and their ace in the deck. However, the children that used the cure ended up unable to use the skill 【Beast Transformation】 ever again.

I don’t understand the specific details, but it seems like 【Beast Transformation】 uses the organ that stores the Magic Power inside the body and when the drug is used, that organ’s movement ends up being obstructed or otherwise stopped. Although I may have had no other choice to save Urania’s life, I’m still the one that destroyed her future.

It was about one year ago when I saw her again. It was just a coincidence that I witnessed her being treated unjustly at where we held the Joint Guild Master Meeting. They were not ranking her properly for being a 『Diseased』. She didn’t seem to remember me, but still, I made some preparations here and there, got the town’s Guild Master to lose his post and summoned Urania to this town.

Still, it seems like she didn’t give up. She desperately studied, frantically trained, and basically just worked really hard. It might be have been unpleasant for her as someone who’s growth has been hindered in exchange, but anyways, her efforts are really praiseworthy. Without being biased, her ability is sufficiently befitting of D Rank and if she wasn’t 『Diseased』, then she would’ve had probably climbed up to at least C Rank in no time.

The other one, Lily, is a masterful Mage “Grim” suddenly brought along ten days ago. I’ve seen her use Magic a few times, but she’s pretty much a damn monster. At the very least, there isn’t anyone better than her in this Guild. Still, her personality, no, well, her appearance too seems to be just that of a regular brat. Though she has damn insane technique, she doesn’t really show off about it, and only uses it like its natural. From how she speaks, you can clearly see that she didn’t have a decent life. In what world would a fifteen-year-old girl talk like a man.

Knock, Knock, Knock!

「Hm? Come in.」 「Excuse me.」

When I unintentionally stopped working and fell in deep thought, knocks echo from the door. After I gave her my permission, Petra enters with a new batch of documents.

「Reporting. The members of “Gale” have been just attached with a price. The report for the amount came in earlier, but what should we do about it?」 「Hmm, then let’s just pay them immediately. It’s better to get the money as soon as possible, don’t you think?」

Speak of the devil, huh. “Gale” refers that party, “Gale Viper”. They caused so much trouble that we had to revoke their Guild Cards. The members of “Gale” then went and attacked “Little”, but they had the tables turned on them. And were politely handed to the Guild with no physical defects. It’s pretty rare for crime slaves to be perfectly healthy, so I expected them to sell for quite the amount, but I didn’t expect them to get sold this fast.

「Understood. Then on to the next report.」 「Hm? Is there more?」 「It’s about the highway to the Empire. Eighteen frozen goblin statues have been confirmed. The number matches with the Proof of Subjugation.」

It seems like the other report is also Lily related. What kind of Magic can even freeze eighteen goblins in an instant? Anyways, with this, I’m done gathering the evidence, so I can finally give the members of “Grim” the additional reward. After that, I can also submit a recommendation for Lily. If possible, I’d like to have one for Urania too, but she lacks just a bit more achievements.

「And one more thing.」 「There’s still more?」 「Yes, it’s about the goblins, but it seems like they were trying to run away from something.」 「Haa?」 「According to the investigator, it seems like the Mana levels were abnormally high. Since the highway passes through the Sacred Mountain’s base, the Mana in the vicinity should have been flowing to the Sacred Mountain but…」 「Hmm… It seems like there’s going to be a bit of trouble, huh.」

This is convenient. Since all the actors are here, let’s have our expert veterans and hopeful rookies work on this one.